All you need to know about the new 10.5” iPad Pro 2017

iPad Pro 10.5''

Design

10/10

Features

8/10

Performance

9/10

Camera

10/10

Battery

10/10

Pros

Excellent display

upgraded storage options

faster processor

better cameras

Faster refresh-rate display

Cons

require iOS 11

cost to laptop levels

One of the new pieces of hardware we got at WWDC this year was this new iPad pro. Now it looks obviously really similar in pretty much every way to previous iPads. So you know may or may not be worth it, some minor improvements in here.

This tablet has me using tablets again a lot more often. So does everything you need to know about this new iPad pro. First of all you’ve seen an iPad before, you’re already familiar with the way an iPad pro looks all-metal rectangular body. Pretty exceptionally well built, you can see the antenna lines for the cellular version up top, And a 10.5 inch display is slightly bigger but in a similar footprint to the old 9.7 inch iPad pro. So we just have some thinner side bezels now which I really appreciate. We’re also pretty solid but also very lightweight tablet to hold in the hand so it’s comfortable, which is good because you’re going to be holding it in your hands a lot.

So, what is new ?

Well number one is inside is a pretty big speck bump. An iPad was already pretty powerful but now you might have seen use new headlines that the new iPad pro is almost as powerful as a macbook pro. In a way that’s kind of true. It’s benchmarking really high in Geekbench, thanks to the new a 10x fusion chip which has a 12 core GPU and is very very powerful and capable. It also bumped up to four gigs of ram and just through daily use.

I haven’t come across any apps or any experiences really that truly pushed this new iPad pro to its limits. This thing crushes everything you throw at it and I’ve played a variety of games, mess with productivity apps and gone with them for long periods of time open. This I’ve had barely bricks of sweat it really only just gets a little bit warm and that’s it.

The most impressive part is actually how many apps that keeps in memory and for how long. Like there was more than one instance where I went back through the multitasking UI and found an app that was open yesterday and tap to open it and it was right there where I left off which is pretty awesome. So a 10x fusion chip is a monster, plus four gigs of RAM is great. And now also 64 gigs of storage is the baseline so that’s a pretty solid spec bump.

10 Hours again

The battery is about the same. Apple claims 10 hours again. I found that to be conservative but pretty accurate, usually good for about two full days of youth off and more though because standby time is so good. I just wish iPads had quick charging that’s one thing but I feel like they are kind of missing from the hardware. Wish it was USB C , but not expecting it so whatever but these things charge kind of slow, for a huge battery like this. I wish they had quick charging will be a lot more convenient.

Capture like Pro

Then the camera, yes technically the camera on the back got a big upgrade as well. It’s now running the same 12 megapixels 1.8 camera system as the new iPhone 7, which doesn’t mean I don’t endorse using it as your main camera or anything. But it’s now super overkill in the quality department for some new features will support like document scanning, where recognizes text and 3d surfaces. And can scan documents into the Notes app super accurately and easily. If you want to use the camera for other things, sure it’ll be an awesome FaceTime camera. It’ll take 4k videos with optical image stabilization like it’s an amazing camera, It’s the best camera in a tablet.

Loud and Clear

Now the speakers in this tablet still pretty good, actually great because they’re the best speakers in any tablet. Also has the quad speakers this has them on all four sides. So if you’re gaming or if you’re watching a video or listening to music the entire thing kind of vibrates as this echo chamber. And if you put it on a table, the table starts vibrating, it’s loud, it’s crisp ,it’s clear great speakers also.

Impressive Display

But the biggest upgrade and the absolute most impressive new feature of this iPad pro is the new display. So this screen is better in every way possible. It’s brighter , you know up to 600 nits max brightness and it has that anti-glare coating and everything so it’s more visible and bright environments. It supports the wide P three color gamut now , so overall it can produce more vivid bright colors and still the same high resolution as before. So 264 pixels per inch beyond 1440p resolution.

But the real killer is what Apple calls promotion and have to name it or wherever but essentially the new iPad display is now capable of a refresh rate up to 120 Hertz. Unlike every other app will display on every device ever which is going up to 60 Hertz. So the native speed of everything that’s happening on the display is now 60 frames per second instead of 30 frames per second. It’s awesome that the GPU keeps up with everything and pretty much never drops any frames because this adds a whole layer of butter to the top of the OS.

Promotion also means that it can dynamically switch the refresh rate to go back down lower when you’re doing slower moving tasks like maybe reading a book, scrolling through a webpage something slower, looking through photos. But you won’t really notice because as soon as you start scrolling quickly again or as soon as you hit that home button and start swiping it’s right back to 120 Hertz. So this is awesome I really enjoyed using it and it did make a really big difference in my iPad usage experience.

All the in-app experiences are faster, all the between app experiences are faster and I really hope this comes to the next iPhone. But that in a nutshell is the new iPad pro. It’s not necessarily any more Pro of an iPad than previous ones. Still runs the same OS, still has just better specs. It’s kind of like iMac Pro versus iMac, it’s just better.

iPad Pro (10.5) prices

64GB Wi-Fi

256GB Wi-Fi

512GB Wi-Fi

64GB LTE

256GB LTE

512GB LTE

US

$649

$749

$949

$779

$879

$1,079

UK

£619

£709

£889

£749

£839

£1,019

Australia

AU$979

AU$1,129

AU$1,429

AU$1,179

AU$1,329

AU$1,629

The Best Tablet

It turns out with this tablet there, really isn’t anything close in terms of competition. As far as just a pure tablet goes , great battery life, really great display, best camera and any tablet, best speakers in any tablet, best build quality in any tablet, best performance. So this thing is a really complete package. If you don’t already have an iPad, probably a good time to get one. If you do already have an iPad know that this is a really solid spec bump and if that’s what you’re looking for then this will fill that void.

REVIEW OVERVIEW

Design

10.0

Features

8.0

Performance

9.0

Camera

10.0

Battery

10.0

SUMMARY

Apple’s 2017 iPad Pros improve on already excellent drawing, video and photo capabilities, but its true potential won’t be seen until iOS 11 is released.

Founder of Troied , Vishnuprasad AS is a programmer , web developer and the CCO of Motify.in . He writes mainly about technology , internet and tech related tutorials. He is currently doing his engineers degree in Computer Science from Vidya Academy of Science & Technology.